The All Ireland Piping and Drumming Solo Competition was held in Dublin on Saturday September 19th 2009 and three members of the De La Salle Scout Group competed.  Elaine Stone gave a fantastic performance and despite very serious competition from pipers from Canada, Scotland and various parts of Ireland she won the under 16 trophy. Elaine was trained by her Dad John who also plays pipes with the De La Salle Scout Group Pipe Band. She is the second member of her family to win this coveted trophy as it was won by her brother a few years back. Elaine is also the Pipe Major of the junior section of the band and earlier this year she lead the junior band in a very special parade through the centre of Waterford City on May 15thto commemorate the first parade of the band held on the same date back in 1935. Elaine continues to work hard on her performance and we look forward to her having many more wins in the future.

James Stone also gave a brilliant performance in the under 12 section of the competition and he took second place. James is already the Munster champion under 14 and was also trained by his Dad. At a very young age James is turning out to be a very accomplished player and no Doubt we will be seeing his name on various lists of winners in the future.  Emily Costello represented the Drum Corps and competed in the under 14 side drum competition. Emily also performed very well and received some very good comments from the judges on her performance. Emily is being trained by Mark Bardgett the band’s drumming instructor. Earlier in the year Emily took second place in the Munster championships and she  plans to continue to work hard on her performance and we look forward to seeing her partake in many competitions in the future where no doubt she will be among the winners. De La Salle having had success in the Munster Solos earlier in the year are delighted with these results and look forward to even bigger and better things in the year ahead.  The band also continues to celebrate its 75th anniversary year and will shortly launch its commemorative CD. It will also have a Memorial service on November 22nd to remember all of its past members and will finish the year with a concert in early December.